New Testament People Groups

So I decided not to do all the New Testament sessions that we were given since there are a number of introduction ones. I am just going to start with each of the books.  

If you would like me to post the intro ones let me know and by all means I will, they include: The Inter-testonmonial Period (groups, countries, leaders, and well known people that lived during the NT time); Social Groups; Emperors; Greek Gods meaning full to the people of the NT; Philosophies in the NT period; Plato, and Aristotle and Gnostics. So if you would like to hear/read about any of these, let me know and I will post them.

Here are a few intro things though: 

Spiritual Groups

1.     Religious Groups in the New Testament
“All of these groups were threatened by Jesus”

a.     Synagogue

                                                 i.     Place of prayer, instruction in the word, Hospitality and care-giving

                                               ii.     Paul went here first when he visited a new city

                                              iii.     Hierarchy of Ministry established here

                                              iv.     Open pulpit for visitors to share

b.     Scribes

                                                 i.     Also called Teachers or Lawyers

                                               ii.     Copyists – duplicated manuscripts

                                              iii.     Interpreters of the law

                                              iv.     Began to add their opinions to the text itself

                                               v.     Wrote commentaries (TALMUD)

                                              vi.     Copied the oral law (MISHNAH)

1.     When Jesus says “When you’ve herd it say… but I say…” He is referring to the Oral Law

c.      Pharisees
(Middle Class)

                                                 i.     Came into existence about 135BC – Period of Maccabees

                                               ii.     Focused on the ceremonial law

                                              iii.     Memorized the Torah (first five books of the Bible) – usually by age 12

1.     Two Jerusalem Schools

a.     Hillel

                                                                                                       i.     Liberal

b.     Shimmai

                                                                                                       i.     Conservative

                                              iv.     Paul trained under the Pharisee Gamaliel

d.     Sadducees
(Upper Class)
- Don’t believe in the resurrection nor Angels

                                                 i.      Upper-Class members of the Jewish community

                                               ii.     Favored Greek Philosophy

                                              iii.     Rejected believe in the afterlife and Angels

                                              iv.     Disagreed with the Pharisees (Acts 23)

                                               v.     Served in political positions

                                              vi.     More patriotic than spiritual

e.     Priesthood

                                                 i.     Decedents of Aaron or the Maccabees

                                               ii.     Regulated Sacrifices in the Temple

                                              iii.     Wanted Jesus dead

                                              iv.     Contained different orders

f.      Sanhedrin

                                                 i.     Highest group of Jewish leaders in the community

                                               ii.     Patterned after Jethro Principle (Exodus 18)

                                              iii.     70-72 men that tried religious cases

                                              iv.     The apostles and Paul stood before them

                                               v.     Some of them were great, including Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus

2.      Social Groups in the New Testament

a.     Zealots

                                                 i.     Greek for “to be hot”

                                               ii.     Traced back to the Maccabees

                                              iii.     Subgroup called Sicarii – assassins

                                              iv.     Tax revolters

                                               v.     Nationalist Jews

                                              vi.     Stirred the people to revolt

b.     Diaspora

                                                 i.     “Dispersed”

                                               ii.     Scattered Jews

                                              iii.     Paul always went to them first

                                              iv.     Essential for spreading the gospel

c.      Proselytes

                                                 i.     “To win a person over to a faith system” – Converts

                                               ii.     Converted through ceremonies

                                              iii.     Newcomers – not born into the family by converted

d.     Samaritans

                                                 i.     Competing ideals regarding where they came from

                                               ii.     Mixed race – Jew & Gentile, half & half, half blood

                                              iii.     Looked down on by the Jews

1.     Nehemiah did not allow them to rebuild the temple

2.     In Jesus’ day, Jews went out of their way to avoid contact with them